Missing out by just 14 votes in 2004 made Eileen Mannion something of a pessimist at the count centre at the weekend. Although the tallies showed that she was well placed to take a seat in Connemara, she wasn't counting any chickens until it was confirmed, as a direct result of her experience last time.
The young Connemara woman looked a shoo-in right from Saturday evening when the tallies for the Connemara area were completed at Leisureland, but one bad electoral experience can deprive you of optimism. However, this time, Ms Mannion was determined to make doubly sure of her election.
“It was a very tough campaign. We had to have a new strategy and we worked very hard to cover extra areas. We just had to keep at it and we went over extra areas and we just worked very very hard,” she said afterwards.
Like Paul Connaughton jnr who had been elected the previous day, Ms Mannion paid tribute to the family name for helping her cause, but added that she such a monicker can also place pressure on candidates.
"The Mannion seat was there for over 80 years. We worked hard for the people, we had a big name politically, but that also places pressure on me to measure up to the high standards of those who were here before me.”
Asked whether it was easier to be an FG candidate in these times of economic distress, she said that “it was easier than being a Fianna Fail candidate but people were very hurt on the doorsteps.
“Everything was very personal to them, the loss of jobs, the prospect of children having to go abroad to work even though there isn't as much work abroad, but they’re still chancing it. It was an emotional campaign.”
She acknowledges that the rapidly emptying coffers of Government will make being a councillor all the more difficult.
“There will be tough times ahead but there is some money there, so I will just have to work very hard to get what I can for the people of Connemara,” she concluded.
The Connemara count was delayed until late on Saturday night and by 3am Sunday, only one count had been completed, when Tom Welby passed the quota. He told me that his vote was beyond his wildest expectations.
”I did feel as the campaign was going on was that there was a bit of wind at my back in relation to how I was doing. I polled 1,750 votes in Connemara in the General Election and quite a number of Eamon O Cuiv’s number ones were number twos to me so I knew that I had to transfer them into number ones for this election, but I was still very surprised at the number I got in the end,” he said.
Sean Kyne from Moycullen was next to be elected in the second count, while the big talking point of the fourth count was the elimination of Connie Ni Fhatharta.
The seventh count saw Sean O Tuairisg and Eileen Mannion elected and her surplus saw Seosamh O Cuaig elected by reaching the quota. Tomas O Curraoin and Seamus Walsh were both elected without reaching the quota.
